I work full-time at the Flinders University of South Australia.
I divide my time between Health, Counselling and Disability Servies and Oasis (wellbeing centre for students).
My job title is ‘eMental Health Project Officer’. Basically, that means I work in a mental health promotion role, with a focus on digital/virtual technologies.
My job is to reach as many students (and staff for that matter) as possible and equip them with the theory, knowledge, skills, tools, techniques, and resources necessary to build and sustain their mental health. This is done in the service of improved overall wellbeing, but also increased productivity and academic success.
In practical terms, this involves the following:
- Write, edit and manage the Student Health and Wellbeing Blog and Newsletter.
- Develop and deliver wellbeing and productivity programs like Be Well Plan, Mental Fitness and Studyology.
- Write and maintain our self-help library for Health, Counselling and Disability Services.
- Co-manage the Oasis website and social media channels (Facebook and Instagram).
- Manage the Oasis Online FLO (Flinders Learning Online) topic which provides students with a comprehensive overview of the wellbeing services and resources available at Flinders.
- Do talks around the university to students on topics like self-care, mental health, mental fitness and self-improvement
- Work with topic and course coordinators to embed wellbeing content into existing courses. I currently have collaborations with Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Medicine, Business and Law, Accounting and Dietetics. One of the exciting collaborations is building a behaviour change course for allied health students to equip them with advanced knowledge in helping their clients make beneficial lifestyle changes.
- Collaborate with other wellbeing-focused staff around the university to raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing activities in the university through events and campaigns. One of our big campaigns is the Good Vibes Experiment. Working on that campaign has helped me develop better collaboration and co-design skills and also stretch myself into basic video production.
- Keep the Media and Communications team on their toes by occasionally trying to sneak inappropriate words into my blog posts 😁
I love my job at Flinders and have been incredibly fortunate to work in such a role. I get to spend my days thinking, talking and teaching on an incredibly important topic (mental health) which has been both professionally and personally rewarding.
To get in contact with me regarding this role, email me at gareth [dot] furber [at] flinders [dot] edu [dot] au. This might include resource sharing, collaborations around the evaluation or dissemination of some of our programs like Studyology or simply to chat about university student mental health.
Dr Gareth Furber 